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EgyptAir plane wreckage found

EgyptAir plane wreckage found

"The vessel's equipment was able to salvage the part that contains the memory unit, which is considered the most important part of the recording device," said a statement from the Egyptian committee leading the investigation.

Since then search teams have been racing to find the plane's wreckage and, crucially, the two black box recorders. The boxes emit electronic pings for up to five weeks after a crash.

Parts of the plane were discovered on Wednesday evening, but Airbus had said that locating the black boxes remained the key to finding answers.

"The first photos of the wreckage do not allow to establish any scenario of the accident," Airbus said in a statement. "Only the black boxes could contribute to a full understanding of the chain of events which led to this tragic accident."

The box is bound for Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria where prosecutors and investigators are waiting to take possession of it.

Scattered debris

The plane went down about 180 miles (290 kilometers) from the Egyptian coast. Search teams have discovered pieces of the fuselage scattered across "several sites" on the sea floor - about 10,000 feet (3,050 meters) beneath the surface.

via satellite as it fell from the sky. The signal was key to helping investigators narrow their search field.

It was the second deadly plane crash involving Egypt in a little more than six months. Last October a Russian airliner crashed in the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. Most of those victims were Russian citizens.

The self-styled "Islamic State" claimed responsibility for that attack within an hour of the crash. But no such claim has been made since last month's crash.